Northern Ireland's Unrest And Gun Control

Tom Knighton writes about "Ireland [sic], Unrest, and Gun Rights: How Gun Control Played a Role in This Week's Events." Knighton's basic argument is that the mostly peaceful protests we are seeing in Northern Ireland would not have happened if the UK government actually listened to its people. He writes:

In [Northern] Ireland, a lot of people feel unheard. They don't like the direction their country has gone, but the ruling authorities don't actually give a damn about their feelings, and so they witness the same thing we see all over the rest of the continent, where so-called immigrants walk around decide the rules of Irish society don't apply to them, sexually harassing women, grooming children for sexual preditation, assaulting and/or killing innocent people; all while the authorities protect these monsters and the people are powerless to protect themselves. 

He also argues that if the citizens of the benighted UK had an actual right to self-defense, including being able to carry and use firearms, none of the unrest we are seeing would have happened: the Sudanese migrant that sliced up a man's face in Belfast and attempted to decapitate him may well have been shot and killed; ditto for the Sikh that stabbed Henry Nowak to death. Knighton explains:

    Ireland [sic], like most other European nations, has strict gun control laws that basically make it impossible for anyone to have a gun they could use for self-defense purposes. They trusted the government to protect them from the evil of the world, but instead, the government brought the evil in and then acts as a shield [for that evil]. ...

    Still, the gun control thing exists, and those who don't want to assimilate to their new homes are still shielded, while the people who trusted their governing authorities to protect them fail.

    It's not surprising that a particularly brutal attack on a Belfast street riled people up. The fact that it was another example of how there is no protection for the Irish was made abundantly clear, and the truth is that the Irish [sic] government has little to fear from its disarmed population. The riots are a response to being ignored by the state.  

Unfortunately, besides confusing Northern Ireland for Ireland, Knighton fits into that part of the political spectrum where he doesn't care whether white people go extinct; that we should still accept migrants even if some are evil, explaining: "No, not everyone who immigrates to a Western nation is evil by any stretch of the imagination. I know far too many who are good, decent people who just wanted to become Americans, and one must believe that it's true throughout the rest of the Western world." One wonders if he would give his child a bag of candy knowing that some of the candy is poisoned, arguing that it is okay because much of the candy is perfectly good.  

Gun & Prepping News #49

 Just some gun and prepping related links that I thought interesting or useful:  

• Jon Low has posted a new Defensive Pistolcraft newsletter.  One story in particular stood out to me: a man that was robbed while taking a briefcase of important documents to his lawyer. He noticed two men in car following him as he left a bank for the building where his lawyer's office was located, but they didn't follow him into the parking lot. 

      As it turned out, they waited out of sight until I got out of my car, locked it and pocketed the keys.  At that moment, the pursuing car drove into the lot, and a huge man jumped out and tried to trap my briefcase.  

     Being a Shotokan black belt in my younger years, I instinctively drove my elbow into his sternum and didn’t let go of the case.  He tried again, and again, and I reacted.  At that moment, the car’s driver jumped out and hit me behind my knees, throwing me to the ground.  He then forcefully straddled me and began punching my face.  He hit me about 30 times, breaking four of my ribs, my occipital cavities and my nose.  He split my lips, then grabbed me by the hair and started smashing my head against the pavement.  

     Not one of the people around bothered to yell or call 911.  The building guard was in the back smoking and talking to his girlfriend on his cell phone.  The whole encounter was videotaped by the building’s security cameras.  

     After I managed to get up and make it to my lawyer’s office, all bloodied up, he called 911.  I wasn’t armed at that time, nor did I have a license to carry.  When the police came later, they took my statement, and I gave a complete description of the perpetrators.  They didn’t bother to check out the surveillance cameras, and their only words were, ”You’re lucky to be alive.  In nine out of ten similar incidents, we find the victim dead.”  Very comforting!  

     That was the end of the police involvement.  They never even bothered to track the car or the perpetrators.  I was taken by ambulance and spent two days in the hospital in extreme pain.  

The two lessons from this were: (1) the man relating the encounter acknowledged that it happened so fast that even if he had been carrying a firearm he probably wouldn't have had time to access it--in other words, know some hand-to-hand skills; and (2) "As Tim Larkin says, your hand-to-hand combat techniques must cause immediate incapacitation. That's not something you're going to learn in a Karate dojo." 

• Greg Ellifritz has posted a new Weekend Knowledge Dump. Lots of good stuff, as always, but here are few articles to which Greg has linked:
• "Concealed Carry in the Era of Terror Revisited" in which the author observes "Carrying a concealed pistol to protect against garden variety thugs is a vastly different proposition than confronting terrorists bent on committing murder and mayhem. Here are some planning considerations for this dire eventuality." One topic the author addresses is that there is a completely different mindset when dealing with terrorists versus your typical street thug:

So, with that in mind, the rules change. Back shoot them without hesitation or warning. The cheaper the shot, the better. To ensure there’s not a threat from behind as you move past their bodies, “anchor” shoot them through the brain and from a position of advantage.  While these methods of engagement are illegal and inappropriate for a criminal encounter and would likely see you charged with murder in that context, I suspect a citizen acting this way against a terrorist threat will be given a pass. (Differentiating between the two at that time could be difficult. Choose wisely.)  This will essentially be participating in no notice infantry combat in your hometown. 

 Well, I doubt that you would get a pass in a jurisdiction controlled by Democrats. But because of mass immigration and the resurgence of violent leftist groups, we should expect more terrorist attacks in the United States. 

• "Why you should NEVER rechamber the same AR-15 round twice." Although looking at the AR platform specifically, the issues raised--bullet setback and floating firing pins repeatedly bumping against primers--can occur in other firearms. 
• And a link to the October Rangemaster Newsletter, plus a lot more. 

• "October 2025 Drill of the Month — 25 Round Version, 'Dot Torture'"--Tactical Wire. Tom Givens writes:

Most of us are familiar with Dot Torture, an excellent practice/assessment drill originally devised by David Blinder, then popularized by the late Todd Green. Here is an abbreviated 25 round version, that takes less time and ammo. We will shoot it at 5 yards.  

The article also links to a PDF of the appropriate target so you can print your own and provides the course of fire.  

• "Which Buffer Weight Should You Run in Your AR-15?"--Ammo Land.  This is a very good summary of key points and information on buffers, what they do, the different weights, and recommendations for different length gas systems. The author writes:

     Your AR-15’s buffer assembly is made up of three components: the buffer, buffer spring, and buffer tube. Together, they control how the bolt carrier group (BCG) travels rearward, absorbs recoil, and returns to battery after each shot.

    Choosing the right buffer weight affects: 

•     Bolt Speed & Cycling – Too light, and your BCG moves too fast, causing premature wear. Too heavy, and it may not cycle reliably.
•     Recoil Impulse – A heavier buffer slows the BCG, spreads the recoil impulse over more time, and makes follow-up shots easier.
•     Parts Longevity – Matching buffer weight to your gas system reduces battering on the receiver extension and bolt lugs.
•     Reliability – A properly tuned buffer system extracts and ejects consistently and chambers the next round with authority.

If this topic interests you, check out my post on "Short Stroke or Buffer? Trouble Shooting An AR". 

• "The Case For Pocket Carry"--Shooting Illustrated. The author relates:

    I worked in the gun world before I ever had to wear a suit professionally. As such, I regularly advocated that everyone should carry the most capable, user-friendly carry pistol they could, such as some flavor of Glock G19 sized semi-automatic.

    When my career path veered into the corporate sector, I was confronted with the harsh reality that concealing a duty-size, double-stack pistol wasn't nearly as easy as when I just untucked my too-big gun shop polo and pulled it over my IWB holster.

    I soon found myself in another literal white-collar, suit-and-tie job that had me in very close proximity with customers on a daily basis. It was in a relatively low-risk industry (no high value inventory or large amounts of cash), so I didn't have to worry about experiencing my own personal Nakatomi Christmas Party.

    That said, I still wanted to remain armed. After all, using Tom Givens’ alumni stats as the example, the only negative outcomes his students have suffered have been “forfeits”: showing up to your defensive gun usage without a gun. 

He discusses why he decided on pocket carry and his selection for a pocket carry gun: the KelTec P32. 

• On a related note: "The Case for Mouse Guns"--Shooting Illustrated. Like me, the author grew up "in a time when everyone 'knew' 9mm was weak and the only serious choice for self-defense was a .45 ACP" and "stopping power" was all the rage. But now we understand that "effectiveness has more to do with shot placement and penetration than bullet diameter." Thus, carrying a smaller handgun is no longer viewed as tantamount to suicide. Money quote: "A pistol is always a compromise weapon. It is carried because it’s convenient, not because it’s powerful. That mindset shift allows us to stop chasing ever-larger cartridges and start focusing on what truly matters: accuracy, reliability, and penetration in an accessible firearm." 
• "Move and Shoot or Shoot and then Move?"--Ammo Land.  The author discusses the pros and cons of each (although he seems to mean "move and shoot" rather than move then shoot). I'm not a fan of standing still waiting for someone to take a shot, so I guess I lean toward getting to cover before taking a shot. 
• "How Run and Gun Events Changed How I Shoot and Train"--Shooting Sports USA.  The author explains:

Unlike The Tactical Games, which have a strong CrossFit focus, or Three-Gun where the focus is on marksmanship, the Run and Gun format tries to balance general fitness in the guise of moving over longer distances with marksmanship ability. Courses are typically designed so an excellent runner who is a poor marksman will finish in the middle of the pack, just as an exceptional shooter who can’t run will be equally “mid,” as my teenager would say. 

• "The Importance of Safely Placing Your Finger on a Handgun"--Handguns Magazine. Where to place your trigger finger when you've drawn your weapon but are not yet ready to shoot. The author prefers a high index position that aligns the finger above the trigger guard and along the slide or frame. This, he explains, allows you to index the gun (i.e., align the gun with a target by using your trigger finger to point at the target) but keeping the finger safely away from the trigger. The author also discusses the surprise trigger break:

     Surprise trigger break refers to applying rearward pressure on the trigger gradually to keep the muzzle from moving as the shot is fired. That’s important because even the slightest muzzle movement when firing could result in a miss.

    The “surprise” refers to not anticipating when the shot will break, which often leads to a miss. It doesn’t mean you should be surprised you fired the pistol. Firing your pistol should always be a conscious decision.

•  "Carrying and Using the LDK Knife"--Greg Ellifritz. Greg was involved in the design of the LDK (last ditch knife). He "designed it primarily as a knife that could easily be missed on a cursory search if one was taken hostage." He intended it to be small enough it could be carried in a wallet, but the sheath for it has "multiple holes in it so that it can be laced in a boot or safety-pinned inside a piece of clothing," although Greg indicates that he originally carried it safety pinned inside and below the rear waistband of his pants when he traveled in third world countries. But, he adds:

I have since modified the carry mechanism slightly by attaching a small keyring.  I loop the keyring around my rear pants belt loop at the small of my back and tuck the knife down inside my waistband.  I have also attached a small handcuff key and handcuff shim from OscarDelta to the same keyring.  Now, no matter how I may be restrained, I have a reliable option for escape. 

•  "Review: Military Armament Corporation MAC-5"--Shooting Illustrated. Their semi-auto pistol version of the HK MP5, made by a plant in Turkey that is still licensed by HK. MSRP is listed as being $1,100. 
• "Was There Ever An M15 Rifle?"--American Rifleman. Yes, there was. It appears to have been a beefed up M14 designed to serve the same role as the Browning BAR as a squad automatic weapon. But it wasn't adopted because the Army believed that a few changes to the M14 would allow it to serve in the same role. They were wrong, of course. 
• "Court Rules Against Post Office Carry Ban"--The Truth About Guns. So if you live in the Northern District of Texas, your ability to carry a concealed weapon has slightly expanded. 
• Some articles from Blue Collar Prepping on water preps:
• "Prudent Prepping: Water Jugs"--the author explains why his favorite water jug for water storage is the  Reliance Products Jumbo-Tainer 7 Gallon Jerry Can.
• "Drinking Distilled Water"--downsides to drinking distilled water, including that it lacks any taste because there are no minerals in it; and because of that, it also can strip minerals from the body.
•  "Bleach for Water Purification"--this article was prompted by the failures in the water system in Telodo, Ohio, resulting in contamination of the water with microcystin toxin from algae.  Unfortunately, in that situation, filtering was of little use because while the filer would remove the algae, it didn't remove the toxin; and boiling the water would make the situation worse because the boiling would concentrate the toxin. Fortunately, bleach will remove the toxin because it reacts with the toxin producing a benign chemical. The article explains how to use bleach to purify the water, including figuring out how much bleach to use.
• "Purifying Water with Bleach, part 2"--this article provides some charts so you don't have to rely on the math needed in the earlier article.
• And on the topic of water: "Best Way to Fill Your Bathtub with Rainwater For Emergencies"--Modern Survival Online. This isn't about filling your tub when a disaster first strikes, but using the bathtub to store water collected from other sources--in this example, from rainwater--during an extended disaster. Thus, he discusses everything from using buckets, to using a diverter and hoses, to using hand pumps. He also recommends using a bathtub reservoir bag to make sure the water stays clean.  
• "Is Urban Survival Even Possible?"--Modern Survival Online. I think we all understand that long term survival in a city--particularly the large, dense, urban cores of our major cities--is going to be difficult simply because the number of people exceeds the carrying capacity of the land--cities all require a fairly constant supply of food, water and other supplies flowing into them. The author of this article delves into this topic in greater detail and why survival may be possible over a short term, but not over the long term. 
• On this same topic: "How Does an Emergency Crisis Affect a City"--Alpha Survivalist. The author reminds us that cities cannot feed themselves, and looks at the main risks in the event of a disaster: collapse collapse of social order; failure of water treatment and delivery systems; food shortages; and loss of electricity. The author also has some recommendations as storage of water, food and supplies should you decide to try and ride things out in the city. 
• "Sanitation in the City: How to Make a Kitty Litter Toilet When You Can’t Flush"--Organic Prepper. This isn't intended as a long term solution, but for short term emergencies where the power (and, thus, water) may be out. The basic idea is that you suspend a bag in a bucket or even in your toilet with a base layer of litter and then as you use it, spread a layer of fresh litter on top to cover the smell. The author warns that you will need to be careful about the amount of weight as human amounts of waste could quickly be heavy enough to rip the bag. 
• "Free Survival eBooks: Downloadable Straight from Amazon"--More Than Just Surviving. What is free on Amazon changes frequently.  So rather than providing a list of books that are currently free (but might not be in a few days) the author provides links to different categories of survival and prepping related books that list them according to price so you can find what is free at whatever time you are looking.

Is Mental Illness Really A Major Issue In Mass Shootings?

Right now with the gun grabbers gleefully contemplating different ways to limit your right to self-defense, the focus has shifted to red flag laws and background checks that include health records; the idea being that the mentally ill are more likely to become mass shooters or something like that.

    But is it true?

    In the article, "Blaming mass shootings on the nation's mental health crisis is 'harmful', advocates say" it notes that "a 2018 report of the FBI on the characteristics of active shooters found that only 25% of shooters from 2000-2013 had confirmed mental illness." Also (brackets in original):

    According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, approximately 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. experience mental illness, defined as a condition that affects a person's thinking, feeling or mood, each year, approximately 52.9 million Americans. In 2020, 1 in 10 young adults, between the ages of 18 and 25, were found to experience serious mental illness.

    With millions of Americans grappling with mental health challenges, doctors and public health experts, interviewed by ABC News, questioned whether it would be feasible to rely on the nation's current mental health infrastructure to stop would-be shooters.

    “The notion of blaming this on the mentally ill is an intentionally disingenuous scapegoating of people who have enough problems already -- that they don't need to be insulted by politicians who were looking for a way to avoid a more complicated discussion,” Dvoskin said.

    Those who live with mental illness are 10 times more likely to be victims of crime than perpetrators, he added.

    “Very few of these mass shooters have had a diagnosed mental disorder of any kind. That doesn't mean that they were doing fine. I think the better rhetoric to use [instead of] mentally ill is people who are in crisis. Anybody who's in a crisis of despair or rage… that doesn't mean they're going to shoot anybody but they ought to get help,” Dvoskin said.

Other sources indicate that 26% of adults suffer from a mental illness. In short, then, active shooters appear to have no higher an incidence of mental illness than the general populace. 

    In 2018, Active Self Protection published an article by Ron Borsch, a retired police officer and trainer, on "Profiling An Active Killer." He points out near the beginning of his article that it is hard to pin down the motivation for such shooters.

Their motives can be as complicated as they are. Some surviving active killers have described a real or imagined wrong done to them, have claimed they were bullied or picked on.  Others may have been bullies themselves. Typically, all were selfish and over-reactive. These actual and or self-perceived nobodies, desiring recognition for notoriety as a “somebody”, often default to Rapid Mass Murder© for a significant body-count eerily similar to playing violent types of video games, with special fascination for the Columbine video game.

Borsch delves into the video game angle much more, noting a Secret Service study of perpetrators of school shootings (a sub-set of mass shootings or killings) showing that only 12% were attracted to violent video games. Borsch didn't use "only" but I do because a 2008 report from Pew indicated that two-thirds of video gamer played video games with violence in them. Also:

More than 90 percent of games rated E10+, Teen, or Mature have some kind of violent imagery, and “that violence is often portrayed as justified, fun, and without negative consequences,” write researchers Douglas Gentile and Craig Anderson, of Iowa State University.

The study Borsch cites actually shows a stronger correlation with liking violent books and films, but that was still only 24% and 27% respectively. So, in reality, school shooters appear less interested in violent video games than youths in general.

    With that aside, Borsch then moves on to listing off a constellation of factors. As Borsch points out, it is a mistake to focus on just one factor, “… but the truth of the matter is that there is never one cause. There is a cocktail of multiple causes coming together… And so no matter what single thing we focus on… not one of them is sufficient to cause aggression. But when you start putting them together, aggression becomes pretty predictable”.  This is similar to a doctor diagnosing a disease. That is, if you were looking at a constellation of symptoms of a disease, for instance, a doctor would not diagnose you as having a particular disease if you only suffered one or even a few of the symptoms. Rather, you would need to show all or almost all of the symptoms. 

    The factors (symptoms) Borsch lists include: (i) numerous unstable or troubling symptoms, possibly a mental illness diagnosis; (ii) is an oddball and typically avoided by his peers; (iii) immature (i.e., under 25 years old); (iv) planner, preparer and researcher of prior mass shooting events; (iv) close in age to his victims; (v) suicidal; (vi) an interest in violent video games; (vii) white male; (viii) cowardly; (ix) access to weapons. 

    The white male factor is interesting. It's not that blacks don't commit mass shootings--they are overrepresented in fact--but they don't tend to shoot up schools. But I would point out that blacks on average test as having a much higher self-image and self-assurance than the average white person. It might help explain why young black males are more likely to be involved in violence but less likely to be involved in a school shooting.

    Going through this, though, we only see two factors directly linked to mental health: the unstable or troubling personality (including possible mental health diagnosis) and the suicidal ideations. That means that seven of the factors are unrelated to mental health issues. So Borsch's article would seem to indicate that mental health, alone, is a poor predictor of a mass shooter. 

    In what I believe is a more recent article from Active Response Training, Greg Ellifritz reviewed an FBI study on "Pre-Attack Behaviors of Active Shooters in the United States from 2000-2013". One of the points Ellifritz makes is:

Only 25% of killers had been previously diagnosed with a mental illness.  There may certainly be some un-diagnosed mental problems among the remaining killers, but this statistic really shoots down the idea that psychiatric drugs are causing all of these shootings.

As I noted above, that is the same incidence of mental illness as within the general population.

    In conclusion, given the research on this matter, I would be suspicious of anyone that emphasizes mental health as a sole trait or even one of the more important traits predictive of a mass shooter; and I would be especially suspicious of anyone claiming that a person's mental health status should be used to determine whether a person should be permitted to buy or own a firearm. The law currently requires that a person be adjudicated as a mental defective or committed to a mental institution and that is probably as far as we should go with trying to link mental health and gun ownership.